30 tic at the left corner of his mouth. He . d " Th . . I " sal , IS IS your manua s. Jimmy hefted them. He said, "I can't start a thing until I get my desk cleared of these humongous directories and little bits of paper, memos, what- not. Can the computer make me a list of prospective participants according to their disciplines, with names, addresses, and credentials?" "You have to delimit the fields for your values, key in your codes, and d " enter your ata. "What's your name?" Jimmy asked the computer giant. " s " weng. " I ' J . " J . . d " s m Immy. Immy sal, weng, do you know Turkish?" " N " . d S 0, sal weng. Jimmy said, "And I don't know how to turn what you just said into what I am supposed to do." Jimmy sat down in the chair still warm from the computer giant's person and asked, "How do I enter?" " y ." . d ou got to turn It on, sal Sweng. The switch looked like all the switches in James's life. He turned it on and the screen en- gendered a lowercase "b" that repeated itself to the rightmost margin, skipped left, filled the next line also and con- tinued down the screen like this: bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbb . .. . "What did I do wrong?" cried James. " D . d I . . "" 1 rUIn ltr " L " S et me, weng said. Jimmy got grate- fully out of the hot seat. Sweng punched a JULY I, 1991 "It doesn't throw a shadow?" asked Alpha.. "It can't see itself in the mirror?" suggested Leslie.. "Little dogs bark at it?" proposed Ilka. "Close! The little blinking cursor won't move along the ghost line; it moves only along the true line. That's sort of wonderfu1!" Jimmy had mislaid his office, so Ilka walked him back. She laughed the third time they met on the stairs. It turned out that James was looking for the corridor that led to her office to ask her, "What's the name of what's-his- name's assistant?" Martin Moses turned out to be who Jimmy was looking for. "Which one . h ?" IS e. "Tall, funny. You talked with him for half an hour at the Shakesperes' . " reception. "I talked with a lot of funny peo- ple. Whose assistant did you say h .?" e IS. " z k ' " ac s. "Which one is Zack?" "Nose in the middle of the face. Mouth like a keyhole." "Ah. What does Zack d ?" o. "J ames, don't you have a listing of the members?" "Probably underneath the papers on my desk." "Jimmy, there's a list- with your name newly pencilled in-pinned on the corkboard in the lit- tle lounge outside the kitchen." "Where's the kitchen?" frontal button. The witchery ceased. "What did you do?" cried James.. "Should I have known how to do that? Now what are you doing?" But answer came there none. The computer man punched keys, gazed into the respond- ing screen, punched, gazed, punched. Useless for Jimmy to call to him out of our common world, "I wish you would tell me what you're doing!" The computer man's soul had entered the computer. Jimmy watched and waited till the man rejoined himself, rose, and said, "You're O.K. now. Call the Computer Center if you have a question." " D ' I I ". d J on t eave me. crle ames, but the computer giant ducked his head and cleared the door of Jim- my's office. " I LI KE it!" James reported to the conference table, where all the institute people brought their demo- cratic lunches. "I'm typing in lights! Words stay forever changeable, like my mind! I love it when the screen produces a ghost line. You know how you know it's a ghost line?" D, r .. J : " à \ " P OOR old James!" Eliza Shakespere said to him.. "It's hell to be new and not know how a place works." Eliza had dropped in shortly before five, and Leslie broke out a bottle of vodka. Some- one got ice from the kitchen. Nobody felt like going home. Everyone hung out in Leslie's office. Ilka said, "My project is to not nag Jimmy." Everybody said, "That's right! You leave Jimmy alone!" Ilka was surprised